4.1.7.6 Escape Sequences

A backslash occurring inside integers in ‘0'’ notation or inside quoted atoms or strings has special meaning, and indicates the start of an escape sequence. The following escape sequences exist:

\b

backspace (character code 8)

\t

horizontal tab (character code 9)

\n

newline (character code 10)

\v

vertical tab (character code 11)

\f

form feed (character code 12)

\r

carriage return (character code 13)

\e

escape (character code 27)

\d

delete (character code 127)

\a

alarm (character code 7)

\xhex-digit…\

the character code represented by the hexadecimal digits

\octal-digit…\

the character code represented by the octal digits.

\LFD

A backslash followed by a single newline character is ignored. The purpose of this is to allow a string or quoted-name to be spread over multiple lines.

\\, \', \", \`

Stand for the character following the ‘\’.